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Articles about craft.

Top Posts of 2011: 11 Resources To Make Editing Your Novel Easier

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This post originally appeared on Publetariat on 6/7/11 and has received 1968 unique pageviews since then, making it one of the most popular posts on Publetariat in 2011.

As if learning the craft of writing a novel isn’t difficult enough, after it’s finished you’ll need to edit it. If you’re going to be traditionally published, you’ll probably work with an editing staff to make your work marketable.

But before it gets to that point, you have to get it past the slush pile – that means doing a lot of self-editing first.

Of course, you may choose to go the indie author route and self-publish. No need to rise out of a slush pile, just a need to catch a reader’s eye out there in the big world. Sounds pretty simple.

But before you catch a reader’s eye (and you want to make a good impression, yes?), you need to have a great story – that means doing a lot of self-editing and perhaps hiring a professional as well.

No matter what you do, if you want to be read and have those readers give you great reviews, spread the word and buy your other books, you have to face the red pen. You must edit your manuscript.

Thankfully there are many resources available to help from blogs to books to videos. Here are 11 resources that will make editing just a little easier on you.

  1. Editing Your Novel: High Level Story Read Through by Joanna Penn – In this video, with transcript, Joanna explains some of the process she went through editing her first draft of Pentecost from weaving in back story to checking for consistency.
  1. A Perfectionist’s Guide to Editing: 4 Stages by Jami Gold – In this blog post Jami narrows our focus from revising the big picture to nailing down those pesky words that need to be just a little stronger.
  1. Proofreading & Editing Tips: A compilation of advice from experienced proofreaders and editors – This article is just what it says, a list of tips from general proofing to content editing.
  1. Copy-Editing And Beta Readers by Joanna Penn – In this blog post Joanna shares how she worked with beta readers and what benefits she found from their feedback.
  1. No Really: Kill Your Clichés by Leslie Wilson – This blog post takes a humorous look at how clichés can hurt your writing.
  1. Do You Copy? Tips on Copy Editing Your Own Work by Janice Hardy – In this blog post Janice shares several concrete examples of common problems such as tense issues, parallel series difficulties and ambiguous pronouns.
  1. Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty – In this book Mignon helps writers understand complex grammar concepts by using simple examples and memory devices.
  1. 10 Actions You Can Take to Improve Your Proofreading by Randall Davidson – This blog post is rather on the nose with simple tips that include slowing down, reading out loud and asking for help.
  1. 10 Grammar Rules You Can (and Should!) Ignore! By Tracy O’Connor – In this blog post Tracy gives us permission to break those “hard and fast rules” like split infinitives and ending a sentence with a preposition… only when it makes the writing sound natural, of course.
  1. A Good Edit Would’ve Fixed That by April Hamilton – In this blog post April gives several concrete examples of how to fix problems such as using internal monologue for omniscient exposition.
  1. 5 Essential Tips on Self-Editing by Catherine Ryan Hyde – In this blog post Catherine reminds writers to use spell check, but don’t rely on it, as well as four other very useful tips.

Editing is unavoidable and can be painful, but it doesn’t need to be impossible. These are only a few of the resources I’ve found. What about you? What resources and tips have you picked up as you’ve gone through the editing process?

 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s The Road to Writing.

Top Posts of 2011: Five Proofreading Techniques Every Talented Writer Should Know

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As a service and holiday treat to our readership, Publetariat will be re-printing the top posts of 2011 between now and the end of the year. We begin with this guest post from Randall Davidson, which originally appeared on Publetariat on 6/1/11. It was the most popular post on Publetariat for all of 2011, and has received a total of 13,898 pageviews since it first appeared.

Professional proofreaders use a number of proofreading techniques in order to produce the most polished and error-free results for their clients. These methods allow them to maintain their concentration on the material while ensuring that it is thoroughly checked for mistakes and necessary corrections. By adopting these proofreading techniques, authors and small business owners can improve the quality of their written communications.

 

  1. Double check. Most professional proofreaders check each project at least twice in order to ensure that no mistakes have been overlooked during the first pass. This can also help proofreaders to detect errors that may have been caused during the correction process itself, offering additional protection against mistakes at every stage of the proofreading process.
     
  2. Take a break. One of the most underrated proofreading techniques is also one of the most obvious; taking a break during the proofreading process can be exceptionally helpful in maintaining the necessary focus on the task. By stepping away from the project for a few minutes, proofreaders can often achieve a better perspective on the work both as a whole and in terms of spelling, grammar and punctuation. This can allow them to detect errors more efficiently and effectively.
     
  3. Look it up. A number of online proofreading resources are available to proofreaders in need of spelling clarification or grammatical help. Google can be useful in cases in which a word has been misspelled in a way that makes it difficult to identify. A dictionary is another obvious source of spelling information. By looking up any words that appear questionable or unfamiliar, proofreaders can ensure that the finished work is of the highest possible quality.
     
  4. Divide and conquer. Splitting the proofreading process into various stages can help keep the process fresh and the proofreader alert. Spell checking typically constitutes one phase, with grammar, style and punctuation each comprising one of the other three stages of the process. The same effect can be achieved by a multi-tier approach; by approaching the material first word-by-word, then by the sentence, then by the paragraph and finally in sections, the proofreader can achieve optimal results. This strict method of ensuring repeated viewings of the same material can provide surprisingly effective proofreading results.
     
  5. Call for backup. Even professional proofreaders consult with each other on long and complex projects. Small business owners and individuals can achieve the same results by enlisting the help of a professional proofreading firm.  These professionals can often identify mistakes that might otherwise go uncorrected, creating a final document that presents the information in the most professional manner possible.

Randall Davidson is a co-founder of ProofreadingServices.Us, a rapidly growing professional proofreading services company committed to providing others with the tools necessary to produce polished documents. He does this both through the informative articles he writes and through the high quality online proofreading services that ProofreadingServices.Us provides.

In A World With Amazon, Whither The Small, Independent Bookseller?

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There’s been much commentary about Amazon’s new KDP Select program, as well as about its one-day price comparison app promotion, some of which we’ve been sharing here on Publetariat. The debate rages on, and now branches out into the question of the impact programs like this and mega-bookseller Amazon have on small, independent booksellers. Surprisingly, there are well-considered arguments on both sides.

Independent Bookseller Bob Spear quotes from an open letter American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher, written in response to Amazon’s one-day, bricks-and-mortar price comparison app promotion:

Despite your company’s recent pledge to be a better corporate citizen and to obey the law and collect sales tax, you created a price-check app that allows shoppers to browse Main Street stores that do collect sales tax, scan a product, ask for expertise, and walk out empty-handed in order to buy on Amazon. We suppose we should be flattered that an online sales behemoth needs a Main Street retail showroom.

Forgive us if we’re not.

We could call your $5 bounty to app-users a cheesy marketing move and leave it at that. In fact, it is the latest in a series of steps to expand your market at the expense of cities and towns nationwide, stripping them of their unique character and the financial wherewithal to pay for essential needs like schools, fire and police departments, and libraries.

Over on Slate, Farhad Manjoo takes the controversial position that buying books on Amazon is better for authors, better for the economy, and better for you, because (in his opinion) small, local booksellers aren’t really doing consumers much of a service by comparison:

…I was primed to nod in vigorous agreement when I saw novelist Richard Russo’s New York Times op-ed taking on Amazon’s thuggish ways. But as I waded into Russo’s piece—which was widely passed around on Tuesday—I realized that he’d made a critical and common mistake in his argument. Rather than focus on the ways that Amazon’s promotion would harm businesses whose demise might actually be a cause for alarm (like a big-box electronics store that hires hundreds of local residents), Russo hangs his tirade on some of the least efficient, least user-friendly, and most mistakenly mythologized local establishments you can find: independent bookstores. Russo and his novelist friends take for granted that sustaining these cultish, moldering institutions is the only way to foster a “real-life literary culture,” as writer Tom Perrotta puts it. Russo claims that Amazon, unlike the bookstore down the street, “doesn’t care about the larger bookselling universe” and has no interest in fostering “literary culture.”

That’s simply bogus. As much as I despise some of its recent tactics, no company in recent years has done more than Amazon to ignite a national passion for buying, reading, and even writing new books.
 

In a rebuttal to Manjoo, on Flavorwire, Judy Berman explains why she feels he’s giving small booksellers short shrift:

I find it sad, actually, that Manjoo — a generally sharp and smart technology writer — finds clicking around on Amazon to be more fun than browsing the shelves of a real-life bookstore where (gasp!) one might actually interact with other book lovers. It also seems specious to argue that Amazon customer reviews are more useful than the advice of an independent bookstore employee or owner, who presumably has more knowledge of and enthusiasm for literature than your average unknown dude typing angrily in his parents’ basement. A bookseller, for example, would probably not opine that Jane Eyre is “a longer story of 456 pages in which really could have been written well in half the length.”

 

Mark Coker believes the KDP Select program is wholly predatory, and bad for authors, publishers, and booksellers alike. As he writes in his blog post on the matter:

Impact on authors:

  • Forces the author to remove the book from sale from the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords and others, thereby causing the author to lose out on sales from competing retailers.
     
  • By unpublishing a title from any retailer, the author destroys any accrued sales rank, making their book less visible and less discoverable when and if they reactivate distribution to competing retailers

     

  • Makes the author more dependent upon Amazon for sales. Do you want to become a tenant farmer, 100% dependent upon a single retailer? As some of you history buffs may know, tenant farming, and the abuses of power by landlords, was a primary contributor behind the great Irish potato famine.
     

Author LJ Sellers, on the other hand, feels her decision to offer some of her work through KDP Select was merely a formality since most of her sales come through Amazon anyway:

…I don’t want to see Amazon become a monopoly or have it be the only place my books are available. I want readers to have choices. Still, to survive financially, I may have to climb on board the Amazon train and let go of the idea that I’m an independent author.

Two issues are on deck for me right now. First, is the lending library that everyone’s buzzing about and some are calling predatory. Amazon called me two weeks ago to pitch KDP Select to me personally. Surprised by the contact, I assume it’s because I have ten books on the market and sold quite a few on Kindle last year.

My only concern was the exclusivity issue, but in the end, I decided to enroll two of my standalone thrillers. Which means I had to pull those books from all other e-readers. I wasn’t making enough money on them from any other sources for it to be a financial decision. My hesitation was based only on my commitment to give readers full access to my books.

But the promotional opportunity Amazon offered—a five-day giveaway of the books—was hard to resist. The exposure could be invaluable. Right now, The Suicide Effect is being downloaded in record numbers. Because I have nine other books for new readers to buy, this could turn out well for me. I’ll know in the next month or so.


Bookavore examines the corporate culture and business practices of Amazon, as they trickle down to readers:

At this point I am thinking one or all of the following must be true:

  1. The company culture at Amazon is in some part developed on the back of a scrappy underdog mentality that can only, given their current dominance, be furthered by deliberate business decisions that allow the company to feel like a misunderstood victim
     
  2. The marketing department has hard data showing that given the general miasma of free market exhortation in modern political discourse, consumers respond enthusiastically to offers that deliberately and overtly screw over competition, in large enough numbers to make any negative press a moot point
     
  3. This is all part of an elaborate campaign to make decisions that compel Amazon’s competition and detractors to come out in numbers ruing their predatory and unethical practices, which given the reactive nature of the Internet will give Amazon’s defenders endless chances to label the detractors as old-fashioned, elitists, nostalgia-hounds, and/or Luddites, further cementing the “Amazon vs. the world” brand story
     
  4. Amazon has studied the possibility that they could make more money long-term by gaining the loyalty of customers who would be swayed by more ethical business practices, but has also realized it wouldn’t be worth the investment

 

 

 

Stretching The Definition Of The Word, "Book"

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The concept for my latest book, Overshare, had been bouncing around in my head for well over a year. In it, a young man encounters some major life challenges in rapid succession, and unwittingly, publicly reveals his increasing stress level and alienation from his wife, family and friends through his posts on social media sites. It was a scenario I’d seen unspool in the real-world life of an online acquaintance, and I knew it would make a very timely and relatable story. The only problem was how to convey the events of the story in a way that would capture my experience: following status updates and posts with growing heartache for this person with whom I was only nominally acquainted, yet whom I’d come to know so much about—so much more than I’m sure was intended.

Then it hit me: why not give the reader exactly the same experience I had?

 

Why not show the reader my protagonist’s actual social media web pages, containing his status updates and others’ responses to them, as well as his blog posts, but purposely limit the content to only what a member of the general public would see? To make the reader’s experience as realistic as possible, I knew I’d have to mimic the look and content of the most popular social media sites very closely, and the resulting book would have to be presented in full color. To produce such a book in print would be cost prohibitive, but with the advent of color ereader apps and devices, it seemed an ideal fit for a totally new kind of ebook.

The next hurdle to overcome was sourcing the many photos I knew I’d need to fill the simulated social media site pages. I’d need avatars, or user pictures, of the protagonist and everyone he’d be interacting with online. I’d need candid family and event photos of the sort people regularly post on Facebook. And because of the story arc, I’d need a series of pictures of a young woman at various stages of pregnancy, a series of pictures of a young man depicting the journey from hale and cheerful to beaten and haggard, and finally, baby pictures depicting a preemie’s path from NICU to healthy newborn at home.

At first this seemed an insurmountable obstacle. I couldn’t afford to hire models to pose for all the pictures I’d need, and didn’t have the time, equipment or skills to act as photographer. Anyway, posed stills would never give me the realism I needed. Then, another stroke of inspiration: Creative Commons –licensed images are easily found online, and plenty of them have been licensed as permissible for commercial and remix use. I soon had a treasure trove of real-life photos of real-life people for which the rights holders had pre-emptively granted permission to anyone to use for commercial purposes (such as in a book to be sold for profit) and remix use (such as cropping and coloring to achieve my desired effects).

With this last piece of the puzzle locked into place, I knew I’d be able to produce the "book" I had in mind: one consisting entirely of simulated screen shots of the protagonist’s social media postings.

It would be a novel, in that it would be fiction, but it would be unlike any novel I’d ever seen before. Kind of like an epistolary novel, in that much of its content would consist of written communications taken directly from the characters, but not really, in that those communications did not take the form of letters or any other kind of traditional correspondence. Kind of like a graphic novel, in that much of the content would consist of images, but not really, in that it would also contain blocks of prose in the form of blog posts. I decided I’d need to come up with a new term for this type of book, and after giving it some thought, I came up with "social media novel".

Here are some examples from the book:

Something I wanted to be sure to illustrate in the book is how what someone doesn’t say online can often reveal much more than what he does say. The screenshot below shows the protagonist’s first post following the decision to go public with his wife’s pregnancy; note the complete absence of happiness or excitement in his remarks. There’s not even a smiley face there. What does this tell you? Also note how, based on the number of "Likes" and "Comments", you can tell how large Michael’s circle of acquaintance and support is at this point; as the story goes on, these numbers shrink.

In creating this unusual book, I found that the form it took underscored and illuminated the theme as much as the content. A few early readers asked if the people in the pictures might be upset to learn their photos had been used in this way, and my response was if they did, that would only serve to further exemplify the point I’m trying to make in Overshare: that posting anything online for public consumption can have unintended consequences.

This book took a LOT of effort to produce. The words were the easy part, and constituted maybe only 40% or so of the finished book’s content. I had to do a great deal of work in my graphics editor program, and a lot of complex formatting in MS Word. Then I had to pass the completed manuscript on to someone well-versed in advanced HTML and graphics techniques to take my Word file and convert it into an ebook file that preserved my images and formatting. I’m thrilled to see the finished product at last, and know that it looks exactly like the book I pictured in my mind’s eye all those many months ago. I’m also very excited by the creative possibilities I can now see in full-color, non-traditional ebooks. I hope that as time goes on, many authors will be inspired to explore those possibilities.

 

April L. Hamilton is the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat. Overshare is now available.

 

How Much Do You Want To Get Paid Tomorrow?

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This post, by David Gaughran, originally appeared on his Let’s Get Digital site on 12/11/11.

Things had been going pretty smoothly for self-publishers.

We were more or less done with the arguments about whether this was a viable path and whether you could attract an agent/publisher (if you wanted to) by self-publishing first.

We had generally agreed that e-books were here to stay and that print books and bookstores (sadly) were on the way out.

 

Then Amazon came along with a curveball, splitting the community: KDP Select.

KDP Select is an opt-in program where self-publishers can be part of Amazon’s e-book lending library.  There has been a lot of discussion about KDP Select and the Lending Library – some hysterical, some measured – but I think it needs to be considered in the framework of subscription models in general.

I won’t spend much time on the pros and cons, they have been debated pretty exhaustively on The Passive Voice and this Kindle Boards thread, and I think most writers already know where they stand on this. I want to ask everyone to take a look at the bigger picture of subscription models and how we will collectively define future compensation for our work.

There had been murmurings about Amazon’s move for some time. With the launch of the Kindle Fire – and the obvious corollary that the device was designed to generate future profit on content – speculation turned to whether Amazon would attempt some kind of Netflix-for-Books. Indeed, rumors abounded that they had approached publishers on this and had been universally rebuffed.

For a reader, the deal is seductive: read as much as you like for a fixed fee. In practice, it’s only attractive if the books you want to read are part of the package. For the company selling the package, the clearest way to show value is by having content you can’t get anywhere else.

It was inevitable in one sense. Exclusivity was always going to rear its head. We’ve seen it in plenty of other content industries (software, games, music); it was only a matter of time before it inserted itself in the e-book game. It’s not that new – Amazon just got people talking about it.

Writers are used to being on the sidelines, watching these power plays. This time is different (partly because the publishers decided to sit this one out). We’re being asked to make a decision. And make no mistake, whether we participate, and how we participate, has huge ramifications for the whole publishing business: how readers pay for books, how writers get paid for those stories they read, and how publishers and retailers get to play in this new game.

Amazon arouses strong feelings (in either direction). But whatever your feelings are, you need to realize that subscription models of some sort are going to play a big part in the immediate future.

 

Read the rest of the post on Let’s Get Digital.

About Writing (Introduction)

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Today we’re happy to promote this post from the Publetariat member blog of Michael LaRocca to the front page.

Here’s everything I know about improving your writing, publishing it electronically and in print, and promoting it after the sale.

Two questions you should ask:
1. What will it cost me?
2. What does this Michael LaRocca guy know about it?

Answer #1 — It won’t cost you a thing. The single most important bit of advice I can give you, and I say it often, is don’t pay for publication.

My successes have come from investing time. Some of it was well spent, but most of it was wasted. It costs me nothing to share what I’ve learned. It costs you nothing to read it except some of your time.

Answer #2 — “Michael LaRocca has been researching the publishing field for over 10 years.”

This quote from Authors Wordsmith was a kind way of saying I’ve received hundreds of rejections. Also, my “research” required 20 years.

But in my “breakout” year (2000), I finished writing four books and scheduled them all for publication in 2001. I also began editing for one of my publishers, a job I’ve been enjoying ever since.

After my first book was published, both my publishers closed. Two weeks and three publishers later, I was back on track.

See how much faster it was the second time around? That’s because I learned a lot.

Also, I found more editing jobs. That’s what I do when I’m not writing, doing legal transcription, or doing English consulting work in Thailand (my new home). But the thing is, if I’d become an editor before learning how to write, I’d have stunk.

I’ll tell you what’s missing from this monologue. What to write about, where I get my ideas from, stuff like that. Maybe I don’t answer this question because I think you should do it your way, not mine. Or maybe because I don’t know how I do it. Or maybe both. Once you’ve done your writing, this essay should help you with the other stuff involved in being a writer. Writing involves wearing at least four different hats. Writer, editor, publication seeker, post-sale self-promoter.

Here’s what I can tell you about my writing.

Sometimes an idea just comes to me out of nowhere and refuses to leave me alone until I write about it. So, I do.

And, whenever I read a book that really fires me up, I think, “I wish I could write like that.” So, I just keep trying. I’ll never write THE best, but I’ll always write MY best. And get better every time. That’s the “secret” of the writing “business,” same as any other business. Always deliver the goods.

I read voraciously, a habit I recommend to any author who doesn’t already have it. You’ll subconsciously pick up on what does and doesn’t work. Characterization, dialogue, pacing, plot, story, setting, description, etc. But more importantly, someone who doesn’t enjoy reading will never write something that someone else will enjoy reading.

I don’t write “for the market.” I know I can’t, so I just write for me and then try to find readers who like what I like. I’m not trying to whip up the next bestseller and get rich. Not that I’d complain. But I have to write what’s in my heart, then find a market later. It makes marketing a challenge at times, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

When you write, be a dreamer. Go nuts. Know that you’re writing pure gold. That fire is why we write.

An author I greatly admire, Kurt Vonnegut, sweated out each individual sentence. He wrote it, rewrote it, and didn’t leave it alone until it was perfect. Then he wrote the next sentence the same way, etc., and when he reached the end of the book, it was done.

But I doubt most of us write like that. I don’t. I let it fly as fast as my fingers can move across the paper or keyboard, rushing to capture my ideas before they get away. Later, I change and shuffle and slice.

James Michener writes his last sentence first, then has his goal before him as he writes his way to it.

Then there’s me. No outline whatsoever. I create characters and conflict, spending weeks and months on that task, until the first chapter leaves me wondering “How will this end?” Then my characters take over, and I’m as surprised as the reader when I finish my story.

Some authors set aside a certain number of hours every day for writing, or a certain number of words. In short, a writing schedule.

Then there’s me. No writing for three or six months, then a flurry of activity where I forget to eat, sleep, bathe, change the cat’s litter… I’m a walking stereotype. To assuage the guilt, I tell myself that my unconscious is hard at work. As Hemingway would say, long periods of thinking and short periods of writing.

I’ve shown you the extremes in writing styles. I think most authors fall in the middle somewhere. But my point is, find out what works for you. You can read about how other writers do it, and if that works for you, great. But in the end, find your own way. That’s what writers do.

Just don’t do it halfway.

If you’re doing what I do, writing a story that entertains and moves you, you’ll find readers who share your tastes. For some of us that means a niche market and for others it means regular appearances on the bestseller list.

Writing is a calling, but publishing is a business. Remember that AFTER you’ve written your manuscript. Not during.

I’ve told you how I write. For me.

Editing

The next step is self-editing. Fixing the mistakes I made in my rush to write it before my Muse took a holiday. Several rewrites. Running through it repeatedly with a fine-toothed comb and eliminating clichés like “fine-toothed comb.”

Then what?

There are stories that get rejected because the potential publisher hates them, or feels they won’t sell (as if he knows), but more are shot down for other reasons. Stilted dialogue. Boring descriptions. Weak characters. Underdeveloped story. Unbelievable or inconsistent plot. Sloppy writing.

That’s what you have to fix.

I started by using free online creative writing workshops. What I needed most was input from strangers. After all, once you’re published, your readers will be strangers. Every publisher or agent you submit to will be a stranger. What will they think? I always get too close to my writing to answer that. So do you.

Whenever I got some advice, I considered it. Some I just threw out as wrong, or because I couldn’t make the changes without abandoning part of what made the story special to me. Some I embraced. But the point is, I decided. It’s my writing. My name on the spine, not yours, and I want people reading it centuries after I die. Aim high.

After a time, I didn’t feel the need for the workshops anymore. I’m fortunate enough to have a wife whose advice I will always treasure, and after a while that was all I needed. But early on, it would’ve been unfair to ask her to read my drivel. (I did anyway, but she married me in spite of it.)

Your goal when you self-edit is to get your book as close to “ready to read” as you possibly can. Do not be lazy and do not rush. You want your editor to find what you overlooked, not what you didn’t know about, and you want it to be easy for him/her. EASY! Easy to edit, easy to read. It’s a novel, not a blog.

Your story is your story. You write it from your heart, and when it looks like something you’d enjoy reading, you set out to find a publisher who shares your tastes. What you don’t want is for that first reader to lose sight of what makes your story special because you’ve bogged it down with silly mistakes.

Authors don’t pay to be published. They are paid for publication. Always. It’s just that simple. Publishers are paid by readers, not authors. That’s why they help you find those readers.

Your publisher should also give you some free editing. But there’s a limit to how much editing you can get without paying for it. Do you need more than that? I don’t know because I’ve never read your writing. But if you evaluate it honestly, I think you’ll know the answer.

As an editor, I’ve worked with some authors who simply couldn’t self-edit. Non-native English speakers, diagnosed dyslexics, blind authors, guys who slept through English class, whatever. To them, paying for editing was an option. This isn’t paying for publication. This is paying for a service, training. Just like paying to take a Creative Writing class at the local community college.

By the way, I don’t believe creativity can be taught. Writing, certainly. I took a Creative Writing class in high school, free, and treasure what I can remember of the experience. (It’s been a while.) But I already had the creativity, or else it would’ve been a waste of the teacher’s time and mine. (Later I taught Creative Writing in China. We call this irony.)

If you hire an editor worthy of the name, you should learn from that editor how to self-edit in the future. In my case it took two tries, because my first “editor” was a rip-off artist charging over ten times market value for incomplete advice.

That editor, incidentally, is named Edit Ink, and they’re listed on many “scam warning” sites. They take kickbacks from every fake agent who sends them a client. Avoid such places at all costs, and I will stress the word “costs.” Ouch!

If you choose to hire an editor, check price and reputation. For a ballpark figure, I charge a penny a word. Consider that you might never make enough selling your books to get back what you pay that editor. Do you care? That’s your decision.

Your first, most important step on the road to publication is to make your writing the best it can be.

Publication

My goal is to be published in both mediums, ebook and print. There are some readers who prefer ebooks, and some who prefer print books. The latter group is larger, but those publishers are harder to sell your writing to. I want to be published in both mediums, because I want all the readers I can get.

Before you epublish, check the contract to be sure you can publish the EDITED work in print later. I’m aware of only one e-publisher whose contract specified “no,” but my information on this is very much out of date.

Also, you might want to make sure your targeted print publisher will accept something that’s been previously published electronically. That’s a nasty little change that’s taken place over the past few years. Will I have to choose between the “big publishers” and epublication? I shouldn’t be forced to, but it’s possible. Check on this with someone more knowledgeable than I am.

If you know your book just plain won’t ever make it into traditional print, print-on-demand (POD) is an option. Some of my books fall into this category. The best epublishers will simultaneously publish your work electronically and in POD format, at no cost to you.

A lot of authors swear by self-publication, but the prospect just plain scares me. All that promo, all that self-editing, maybe driving around the countryside with a back seat full of books. I’m a writer, not a salesman. Maybe you’re different.

(And did I mention that I live in Thailand? And don’t have a car?)

I self-published once, in the pre-POD days. Mom handled the sales. I had fun and broke even. With POD, at least it’s easier (and probably cheaper) to self-publish than it was in 1989, because you’ll never get stuck with a large unsold inventory.

POD setup fees can range anywhere from US$100 to well over $1000. Don’t pay the higher price! Price shop. Also, remember that POD places publish any author who pays, giving them a real credibility problem with some reviewers and readers, and that they do no editing or marketing.

Closing Thoughts

Here’s something you’ve heard before. When your manuscript is rejected — and it will be — remember that you aren’t being rejected. Your manuscript is.

Did you ever hang up the phone on a telemarketer, delete spam, or close the door in the face of a salesman? Of course, and yet that salesman just moves on to the next potential customer. He knows you’re rejecting his product, not him.

Okay, in my case I’m rejecting both, but I’d never do that to an author. Neither will a publisher or an agent. All authors tell other authors not to take rejection personally, and yet we all do. Consider it a target to shoot for, then. Just keep submitting, and just keep writing.

The best way to cope with waiting times is to “submit and forget,” writing or editing other stuff while the time passes.

And finally, feel free to send an e-mail to me anytime. michaeledits@michaeledits.com. I’ll gladly share what I know with you, and it won’t cost you a cent.

I would wish you luck in your publishing endeavors, but I know there’s no luck involved. It’s all skill and diligence.

Congratulations on completing the course! No ceremonies, no degrees, and no diplomas. But on the bright side, no student loan to repay.

 

 

Author Blogging 101: Where Are the Readers?

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There’s nothing more typical, and more dispiriting, than a new author blog that has just started, and on which the writer is diligently posting articles, and wondering why no one seems to be noticing.

Hey, we’ve all been there, and most blogs start exactly that way, particularly if this is the first blog you’ve ever worked on.

It’s almost as if the process of doing all the technical work, setting up your blog, getting the theme right, the plugins all working, all the plumbing going right, is a distraction from this one fact: Where are the readers?

 

We All Start With a Readership of 1

Every blog starts with the counter at 1: you are the only visitor. Let’s face it, your whole blogging journey is going to be growth from here, there’s no other choice.

One of the first things I learned about blogging was to not rely on friends or family to become blog readers. In fact, assume that they will rarely read your articles.

So how does a blog go from a readership of 1, with no support from people close to you, to something alive, vital, and thriving? Where do all those people come from? How the heck do they find your blog in the first place, considering the sheer size of the internet?

That’s where traffic comes in, and why you need to understand what it is, where it comes from and what you can do about it. And we’re going to go over each of those issues.

But first, let’s take a high-level look at blog traffic to get our bearings.

Three Kinds of Traffic

There are really only three distinct ways people come to your blog or website, and it pays to know what they are. Here’s how I look at it:

  1. Organic traffic—This is what I call people who arrive at your blog by clicking a link somewhere that wasn’t paid for. In other words, it coincided somehow with their own interest or curiosity.

    You an divide this organic traffic into:

    1. People who click your own links, like the signature file you use in your email, or the link you use as a member of a discussion forum, or when people click your link in a social media profile.
    2. People who click other people’s links, for instance if you contribute a guest post to another blog with a link back to your own blog, or the link in an article that’s been republished from an article site. This also includes marketing you do like entering blog carnivals, and all the times other writers link to your articles.

    2.  

  2. SEO traffic—I think of this as traffic that you attract from search engines by writing your blog posts in such a way that they aim at specific keywords that appear in people’s queries when they are looking for information in your field.

    You can build SEO traffic through a variety of means, including

    1. Blogger tools like themes that help you optimize your posts, add-ins like Scribe (affiliate) that analyze your posts for SEO efficiency or other specific tools.
    2. Blog design, in which a designer can code features into your blog that will benefit you when it comes to search engines
    3. Hired SEO experts, not an option used by many indie authors that I know of. However, experienced SEO consultants can have a major impact on your blog’s search engine rankings.

     

  3. Paid traffic—This is all the traffic that results from payments of one kind or another. For instance, you might use:
    1. Pay per click, where you bid on specific keywords and then pay a small fee each time someone clicks the link that’s displayed on content-appropriate pages.
    2. Advertising, like running a banner ad on someone else’s blog, or running a Facebook ad campaign.
    3. Sponsorships in which you materially sponsor or co-sponsor a contest, an award or some other event that brings people to your site.

Each of these three kinds of traffic can be used to bring new readers to your blog. In fact, there are specific strategies you can use for each of them.

The great thing about working on traffic is that even small steps will have an effect. When you learn some of these strategies and apply them over time, the effects snowball.

That’s when a combination of the links coming from your own efforts combine with the effect you have within your niche. Other people start linking to you because of the contribution you make with your articles and blog posts.

Content marketing, the natural tool of the blogger, always starts with great, useful content. That’s what people will link to.

As we continue to look at author blogging, we’ll also continue to explore each of these avenues by which readers find and reach your blog. And I’ll share with you the strategies I’ve used on my blog and the results they’ve produced so you can see firsthand how this all works.

 

 

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

37 Tips For Writing A Book’s Foreword

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1. Read the book. Understand the message.

2. Reading the Table of Contents and one chapter alone is not enough.

3.Take detailed notes throughout the book.

4. Write to the book’s audience.

5. Write in a familiar voice.

6. Be very careful not to talk down to the readers.

7. You should probably write between 750 and 1,500 words.

8. The foreword’s main role is to help give the book’s author credibility.

9. With increased credibility, comes more sales.

10. Explain how you know the author of the book.

11. If you don’t know the author personally, devote more space to the book’s message.

12. You are trying to make an emotional connection with the reader.

13. You want the reader to like you and your story.

14. Your job is to help get the reader to believe and trust what you have to say about the book’s author and the book itself.

15. Keep the tone simple and personal, but keep your writing tight.

16. Include short anecdotes and real world examples that illustrate the theme of the book.

17. Anecdotes are an important way to help the reader like you and your story.

18. Discuss why this book is significant or timely.

19. Show why the book’s author is a credible person to have written this book.

20. Tell readers why this book is worth reading.

21. Show how the reader will benefit by reading it.

22. Refer to specific things in the book.

23. Explain why you chose those things to discuss.

24. Connect the book to experiences that a reader might face in everyday life.

25. Mention the good points about the book and what the readers will get out of reading it.

26. Be sure to give a very brief synopsis of the book.

27. Talk to the reader as if you were talking to a friend.

28. Keep it engaging and tell an interesting story.

29. Make sure your foreword has a beginning, middle, and end.

30. Tell readers why you are qualified to write the foreword.

31. Don’t be afraid to name-drop.

32. If readers can recognize any of the names, you will gain credibility and likeability.

33. Put your name, title, and location at the end.

34. Make sure you mention if you have a fancy title or prestigious award.

35. These things help establish your own credibility and celebrity.

36. Remember that you are not just writing this foreword to help the author sell more books, but also to help your own career.

37. Authoring a book’s foreword is a great way to remind the public who you are and what you have accomplished.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com.

How To Make Sure Your Book Is The Best It Can Be

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As authors I believe it is our responsibility to make our books the best they can be. As independent (indie) authors it’s even more important to produce an excellent book because of the widespread criticism about the lack of quality. I’ve just sent my second novel Prophecy to my beta readers and in this video [5:55 mins], I explain my process of drafting and edits.

 

In the video, I explain:

  • How I have just sent Prophecy to my beta readers and how some people don’t consider the full extent of editing, rewriting and beta readers in the timing of their publishing schedule
     
  • The first draft to me is when you can read end to end with no missing bits or [must research this] [put fight scene here] etc. You should be able to read it end to end as a story. I  print this version out and read it in entirety.
  • I do a big structural edit at this stage. I rewrite scenes, restructure and delete sections (Here I explain why deleting 20,000 words is sometimes necessary). I added in bits I missed as well as foreshadowing and other layers to make it a better read. After this big second draft, I print it out again.
  • In this 3rd draft, I line edit, change repetitive language, fix typos etc to create a clean draft for beta readers.
     
  • Beta readers will read the book as if they bought it and give me feedback and comments. Importantly they will also mention anything that jolts them out of the ‘fictive dream’. My 7 beta readers are a mix of professional writers but also my family whose criticism is sometimes hard to take. We need thick skins in this business! They have 2.5 weeks to read and provide feedback.
  • Then I will make changes based on feedback. It won’t be everything mentioned but if there are commonalities I will fix these issues. It won’t be a complete rewrite but it will be a tidy up at this point which will create the final draft.
     
  • I will then submit to a copy-editor/proof-reader who check the grammar & typos in the final version so it is as professional as possible.
     
  • These things take time but it is critical that you put the best version of your book up for sale. I personally hate the accusations of bad quality that is laid on self-publishers these days. There’s no excuse for it!

What is your editing and rewriting process like? Do you do all these steps? If you’re an experienced writer, what changes as you write more books?

 

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Rejecting Rejection

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This post, by James Scott Bell, originally appeared on Right-Writing.

The writer Barnaby Conrad tells the story of a matador, all decked out in his "suit of lights," talking to a group of reporters outside the arena.

One reporter asks, "How did you happen to become a bullfighter?"

The matador replied, "I took up bullfighting because of the uncertainty of being a writer."

Truth be told, many of us would rather face the horns of an angry bull than another rejection letter. At least we can run away from the bull!

But for a writer, rejection goes with the territory. There is no way we can avoid it. There are ways, however, to keep it from becoming a poison, something that makes us want to curl up and quit. Here are a few things to keep in mind about rejection:

1. Rejection is not personal

Rejection of your manuscript is not a rejection of you as a person, or as a writer. It is only a rejection of a piece of writing you have turned out.

That makes a difference. You can always grow as a writer. Always. You can learn from your setbacks. If you stick to it, you will get better. So the rejection of a piece of writing is not saying anything about your potential.

A rejection says one of two things. Either a piece isn’t right for the publisher at that time, or it is not up to their standards. The first is something you can’t change; the second you can. You do it by learning to write better.

If, for some strange reason, someone were to tell you that you personally don’t have what it takes, you can be sure that someone is off his or her nut. How can anyone predict your future? Writing is a learned craft. People can learn how to write. No one has the capacity to tell you that you are the exception to the rule.

An obscure editor once told a future Nobel Prize winner: "I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language." Rudyard Kipling we remember. The editor no one can recall.

Writer Ron Goulart said, "Never assume that a rejection of your stuff is also a rejection of you as a person. Unless it’s accompanied by a punch in the nose."

2. Rejection happens to the best

 

Read the rest of the post on Right-Writing.

How To Write Great Content When You Don't Feel Like It

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This post, by Onibalusi, originally appeared on his YoungPrePro blog.

If you’ve been reading blogs online for sometimes now you will know that people always have varied opinions. When I started blogging I battled with creating great content for my readers on a consistent basis and whenever I try to research to find a solution to my problem I came across at least two entirely different opinions. The first one stating that I shouldn’t force myself to write, and the other one stating that I should force myself to write.

 

It can be really confusing over time for you to know which advice to follow but after almost 2 years of blogging I have come to see that both aren’t exactly the best advice. The reason is that making yourself to write only when you feel like it isn’t really effective because you might not even feel like writing for a whole month, and forcing yourself to write is also very dangerous because it can crush your creativity.

Since the above are the two common advice out there to help those who find it difficult to write great content, how do you ensure you keep on creating great content for your readers even when you don’t feel like it? This article will be giving you a few tips to help you write great content even if you’re not in the mood.

You should know that the tips in this article aren’t just something I’m rehashing by reading another person’s article, but something that has consistently worked for me.

Know What Makes You Tick

The first step you have to take towards ensuring you’re always coming up with great content is to know what makes you tick. The reality is that as human beings we’re all different, and that is why there’s no one-size-fits-all advice for making you a better writer.

It’s all about knowing what inspires you. It’s all about knowing what motivates you and it’s all about knowing what puts you in the mood to write. You might not easily know what puts you in the mood to write, especially if you’re someone who hasn’t been observing yourself but you should try to understand what puts you in the mood and makes you your creative self.

Read the rest of the post on YoungPrePro.

Penguin Launches Rip-Off Self-Publishing “Service” Targeting Inexperienced Writers

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This post, by David Gaughran, originally appeared on his Let’s Get Digital site on 11/18/11.

Penguin has unveiled a self-publishing service – which will operate under the aegis of its online writing community Book Country – but questions are being asked about the huge fees they are charging, and the massive royalty cut that they are taking (on top of what retailers such as Amazon charge).

 

This topic has already been covered by bloggers such as Joe Konrath, Katie Salidas, Linda Welch, and Passive Guy. Their posts are worth reading in full – especially the comments where you can see the widespread disapproval of this move from the self-publishing community.

However, this message needs to be repeated again and again to reach as many writers as possible to steer them away from this truly awful deal, and to counter the wall-to-wall, uncritical coverage from the likes of eBookNewser, Publishers Weekly, and the Wall Street Journal (to get past their pay-wall, click on the first search result here).

The most contentious parts of Penguin’s self-publishing operation are the fee structure and the royalty grab. There are lots of other things to dislike, but we’ll get to that.

Overcharging for “services”

Book Country offer a range of options to self-publish your work, all vastly over-priced.

The premium package costs a whopping $549. To be clear: there is no editing or cover design included in this package (the two biggest expenses for self-publishers). There is also no marketing or promotion included in this package, aside from a “Publishing Kit” with “tips” and “ideas”.

All you receive in return for your $549 are your formatted e-book files and your typeset print files which they upload for you. Needless to say, there are a whole host of companies out there that will do the same job, quicker, for a lot less money.

For those with slightly less money to waste, the next package costs $299. The astounding thing about this package is that you get nothing other than the aforementioned “Publishing Kit” (with those “tips” and “ideas”), and the ability to use their software to format your own print and e-book files, which they will upload for you.

Again, it should be pointed out that this is more expensive than paying somebody else to do it for you. If you want to do it yourself, the software you need is free. I should also note that it costs nothing to upload your files to all the major retailers.

The cheapest package is $99. This gets you that “Publishing Kit” and the ability to use their software to format your e-book file only, which they upload to the retailers.

At the risk of repeating myself, there is no value in this package either. You are doing all the work, aside from the uploading, which is free, quick, and simple anyway.

But the poor value in these packages isn’t even the worst part as you will keep paying them every time you sell a book.

Royalty grab

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes several more recent updates, on David Gaughran‘s Let’s Get Digital.

7 Types Of Testimonials: A Guide For Self-Publishers

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1. Faked Testimonial
I strongly advise against doing this. Readers are very sophisticated, and very tuned-in to what is real or fake. If there is even the slightest hint of being contrived, you will lose your audience – and they won’t come back. Don’t forget, it is extremely easy to get legitimate testimonials. So there is no practical reason to create fakes.You must be very careful not to do things like this because it will cause you and your book to lose credibility with your audience. And, as a self-publisher, credibility with your audience is essential if you expect to have any kind of success. Building credibility with your audience can take years to build. Don’t ruin all of your hard work by being too lazy to get legitimate testimonials.

2. Real Testimonial, without person’s name, title, and company
For example: “Jones’ book was really good.” Zachary S.

This testimonial is a total waste of time, and insulting to your audience. Your audience will automatically assume that these are fake. And if by remote chance they are not perceived as fake, your audience will question why none of your readers would give their full name and title. You will lose sales either way. There are plenty of people out there that are willing to use their full name and title – and your buying audience knows this. Your job as a self-publisher is to find them.

3. Real Testimonial, with person’s name, title, and company, talking about your book in generalities
For example: “Jones’ book was really fun to read.” Dr. Zachary Smith, associate physics professor, MIB University.

This one is also way too vague to be of any value to your buying audience. But at least this one has a real person with a fancy title attached to it. You will need to get back to this person and ask them for a more specific testimonial. Mention a few things in your book that they might have noticed or been interested in. Tell them more about what you were trying to accomplish with your book.

4. Real Testimonial, with person’s name, title, and company, talking about you the author
For example: “Jones’ is an amazing author and teacher. His writing is so clear and concise.” Dr. Zachary Smith, associate professor in physics, MIB University.

This is a nice statement about you, the author, but doesn’t say anything about the book itself. Some of your buying audience might be swayed to purchase your book because it says nice things about you. But most consumers want to know more about the book itself.

5. Real Testimonial, with person’s name, title, and company, talking about themselves and how they benefited from your book
For example: “Jones’ book helped me finally understand Einstein’s theory of relativity. His book made it so clear and easy to understand. Because of this book, I was no longer falling behind in my studies, and was finally able to pass my final exam.” Dr. Zachary Smith, associate professor in physics, MIB University.

Ok, here we finally get to it. This is a much better testimonial because it is telling your buying audience about how they might benefit from reading your book. This “third-person testimonial” is an extremely strong one to get. It is much more believable than the others. It is speaking directly to your audience’s need and telling them how they will specifically and directly benefit from buying and reading your book. They are seeking out books like yours because they have a need that must be filled – a need that they are willing to pay their hard-earned money for. Your testimonials must show them how they will benefit by buying your book. Don’t forget to get an assortment of testimonials like this from a variety of people: celebrities, experts with fancy titles, minor celebrities, industry insiders, other authors, and average readers. An assortment of testimonials like this add up to become a very powerful way to boost your credibility and your book’s sales.

6. Real Testimonial, with person’s name, title, and company, and a head-shot photograph, talking about themselves and how they benefited from your book
In addition to “Real Testimonial #5”, try to get the testimonial writer to give you a small head-shot photo. This won’t be easy to get, but you should ask anyway. This will be especially good to use on your website.

7. Real Testimonial, with person’s name, title, and company, and a video, talking about themselves and how they benefited from your book
This one is like hitting the jackpot. This is the ultimate testimonial. Keep the video testimonial down to about 60 seconds. Place it on your website. If at all possible, ask them to create the video testimonial to be used on Amazon, as a customer video testimonial.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com

NaNoWriMo: Advice From The Fastest Writers Ever

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This series of slides and quotations featuring respected and commercially successful authors, curated by Romy Oltuski, originally appeared on Flavorwire on 11/3/11.

Yesterday marked the kickoff of National Novel-Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo), the online project that challenges participants to write a 50,000-word book in the 30 days of November. To those scribbling hurriedly to meet its deadline, we wish you a book deal by December. And to cheer you on, we’ve rounded up a treasure trove of advice and encouragement from the great writers who best embody, in their own work, NaNoWriMo’s goals of writing much and writing fast. Below the jump, read through our favorite words from the wise, speedy, and prolific.

  

Jack Kerouac: “You’re a Genius all the time”

One of the central aims of NaNoWriMo is to encourage writers to trust their abilities — not to look back and scrutinize every detail of their prose but to look forward and trust their pens (or laptops) to spit out rapid gold. This is what Kerouac did, no doubt, when he jotted down the Beat bible On the Road in a mere three weeks on a 120-foot scroll of paper, and why we chose to highlight the 29th axiom of the 30 writing tips in his strangely spelled, hardly punctuated, partially coherent “Belief and Technique for Modern Prose,” below. “You’re a Genius all the time,” he instructs (and with a capital G, no less!); you’ve got to believe it if your publisher will.

 

The slide show and quotes continue here, on Flavorwire.

The Future Makes A Comeback

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This post, by L.J. Sellers, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog on 11/4/11, and is reprinted here in its entirety with the author’s and site’s permission.

We’ve all seen the ads for the new book When She Woke (by Hilary Jordan), a futuristic novel in which a criminal’s skin is dyed to reflect her crime, a story that’s been compared to the classic, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. In recent years, other similar novels have been wildly popular too, such as The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. These novels are dystopian and reflect a society that has completely broken down and morphed into something ugly.

As a reader, my love of futuristic thrillers—which I distinguish from dystopian novels—started long ago with a terrific novel by Lawrence Sanders called The Tomorrow File. For the record, he’s my all-time favorite author, and TTF may be one of the best books I’ve ever read, or at least that’s how I remember it.

The story was written in 1975—and takes place in the year 1998. I read it in college and was captivated by Sanders’ vision of the future, in which genetic classifications are based on whether one is natural, produced by artificial insemination, artificial inovulation, cloned, or otherwise created without the necessity for sexual intercourse. The objects (people) of tomorrow eat food synthesized from petroleum and soybeans, and enjoy unrestricted using (sex) and an addictive soft drink called Smack.

The new language took some getting used to, but the story was so engaging with so many twists that it was hard to put down. Most important, the book triggered my fascination with well-told futuristic thrillers.

Another of my favorite novels set in the future is The Handmaid’s Tale, published ten years after The Tomorrow File. The book won numerous awards, was made into a film, and is so well known I won’t bother with the details, except to say it’s a feminist portrayal of the dangers of a conservative society. I admire Atwood immensely for tackling the subject. (I took a stab at that issue when I wrote The Sex Club…but that’s another story.) Reading The Handmaid’s Tale further inspired me to someday write a thriller set in the future.

Interestingly enough, yesterday a blogger posted comparative reviews of The Catcher in the Rye, The Handmaid’s Tale and my futuristic thriller, The Arranger. The blogger focused on insecurities as the theme, both social and personal, and concluded they were necessary in fiction. First, I find it interesting that people are reading or re-reading The Handmaid’s Tale from 1985 because of the advertising for When She Woke. It’s fun to see the novel resurrected.

Second, it’s an honor to be listed in the same company as works by J.D. Salinger and Margaret Atwood.

I don’t mean to imply The Arranger compares to any of the brilliant works I’ve mentioned, most of which imagine a shockingly different future. (I’m still not sure why Catcher in the Rye is in there, but that was the blogger’s choice.) My story is set only 13 years in the future, and I don’t consider it dystopian. It presents a bleak vision of the United States, in that the economy is stagnant, government has shrunk, and people without health insurance are left to fend for themselves. But all that seems quite realistic to me and didn’t require much imagination.

The Gauntlet, however, is an intense physical and mental competition that provides a backdrop for my novel and required me to create entirely fictitious scenarios.

Overall, I’m excited for the revived interest in futuristic novels. Does it represent a dissatisfaction with our current state of affairs or a fear of what is waiting for us? Or both?

Do you read futuristic novels? What are your favorites? What themes do like to see?